Changes of strategy and strategic direction in organization

Name of the Student:

Student ID:
Name of the University:

1|Page
Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3

Background................................................................................................................................3

Conclusion..................................................................................................................................4

References..................................................................................................................................5

2|Page
Introduction
The situation of an organization that adopts a strategic change policy is the plan or overall
direction established by the association and its numerous components to attain the defined
goals in the forthcoming (Ford et al., 2021). This strategy comprises assimilating the
procedures and actions of the organization and using and assigning resources within your
organization to achieve your current goals. Organizations may decide to change their
strategies to maintain a balance of operations for a variety of reasons. The circumstances that
affect strategic change can be internal or external factors originating from the organization,
the environment of the organizational authorities, government guidelines, customer
competition, and so on. These changes are not intended to impact performance, but they do
always. Employee turnover is another form of change. When senior managers are dissatisfied
with their productivity levels, they often replace key players. Organizational structure, formal
titles and job titles, management systems, work processes, and other aspects of the
organization's internal environment can change (Hanelt et al., 2021). To make this report
more consistent and reliable, we use a variety of theories, techniques, and tools in strategic
change management. Morrison is known as one of the UK's leading supermarket chains.
Morrison trades groceries and groceries in more than 400 stores. Morrison's workshop
employs more than 114,000 people and serves a large customer base around the world.

Background
Traded as Morrisons, Wm Morrison Supermarkets is the fourth largest supermarket chain in
the United Kingdom and is headquartered in Bradford, West Yorkshire, United Kingdom.
Founded by William Morrisons in 1899, the abbreviation is Wm Morrisons, which began as
an egg and butter stall at Lawson Market in Bradford, England (Levy,2021). Until 2004,
Morrison’s offices were primarily concentrated in northern England, but that year's
acquisition of Safeway significantly increased the company's presence in southern England,
Wales, and Scotland. The company was acquired for £ 3.3 billion and has one new Morrisons
stake (Safeway shareholders can own 40% of the expanding group and reduce the Morrisons
family's stake to 18%) and 60p of cash (52 overlapping). It consists of (paid by the sale of the
branch). ) For each Safeway share held. The acquisition quickly ran into problems. This is
partly because Safeway UK's management changed the accounting system for the chain six
weeks before the transaction closed. This white paper focuses on the changes in Morrison and
their impact on those changes (You et al., 2021). It also discusses the role of business

3|Page
functions, focusing on the application of concepts, theories, and models for changes such as
SWOT and PEST.

Influences of leadership and time frame in change in organization

Morrison exemplifies an opportunist leadership style since the company has consistently
sought out and taken advantage of possibilities to establish additional big shops in strategic
locations (Haleem and Jehangir, 2017). It was violent and overconfident; destructive in the
sense that the Finance Director, upon visiting a Safeway store, said that it was not a merger,
but an acquisition; overconfident in the sense that the CEO stated that it was not a merger, but
an acquisition. It was also overconfident in its talents, as shown by the fact that it lost
practically all of the Safeway employees. Its leadership style has shifted from being arrogant
and aggressive to being goal-oriented, which has been noticed. Morrison began to go closer
to the sources than its rivals in order to establish itself as the UK's food expert for everybody
in the country.
Morrison was a single-format superstore with a ranked organisational structure, according to
the company. It was comprised of Executive Directors, an Executive Chairman, Joint
Handling Directors, as well as Executive Directors and a Board of Directors. The Board of
Directors was formed on February 3, 2008, and consisted of a Chairman, five Executive
Directors, and five Non-Executive Directors. There has been one significant change: the
appointment of a Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Previously, the Board of Directors had
approved the written division of duties that had been established between the Chairman and
the Chief Executive Officer. The Board of Directors was in charge of formulating and
approving the Group's strategy and important policies, as well as evaluating progress toward
the achievement of these goals, among other things. It kept track of financial performance,
major operational difficulties, and potential risks and hazards. Aside from that, the Board
gave its approval to all shareholder circulars, listing essentials, shareholder resolutions, and
letters to shareholders, including the Annual Report, Half-Yearly Financial Report, and
Interim Management Statements (Macaulay, 2021). It also devolved operational
responsibilities to the Property Board, the Manufacturing and Distribution Board, and several
committees of the Board. Morrison's organisational structure stayed largely unchanged as a
result of the company's conversion of Safeway shops to Morrison format and the elimination
of other formats of stores such as Safeway's Compact Stores (Brandebo, 2020).
Because of Morrison's overconfidence, the company was able to lure away many Safeway
employees who believed the company was superior. In other words, it was only able to retain

4|Page
150 people out of a total workforce of 1800. Morrison paid a price for this overconfidence in
the form of losing employees who had years of experience, were acquainted with the system,
the culture, and the clients, and who had received training. To put it another way, Morrison
had to hire and educate employees who had no prior expertise or knowledge with the
company's customers or computer systems (Brandebo, 2021). This procedure not only
incurred financial costs, but it also consumed valuable time. Similarly, Morrison got profit
notices after the Safeway acquisition, and the situation was becoming more dire, but it failed
to respond in a timely fashion. Mr Morrison's chairman, Sir Ken Morrison, was of the
opinion that everything was progressing according to plan, and he did not take any practical
measures. Scottish clients were Safeway's traditional stronghold (and source of new
business). Despite the fact that Morrison provided a lower-cost product variety, the company
did not pay enough attention to the previous Safeway's offerings, resulting in unhappiness
among long-time clients. Losing clients results in lower sales and, eventually, lower profit
margins. Similarly, it only had single-format shops, it was unable to match the demands of
the market, resulting in a low number of consumers once again (Strangio and Walter, 2020).

Morrison's stock price has fallen as a result of the merger with Safeway. The decline in the
firm's stock price shows that its stakeholders have less faith in the company. Low sureness
results in either a lack of further investment or even a company's departure from the market.
Both efficiency (liquidity) and economies of scale are impacted by this. Because of the higher
pricing and fewer consumers, the cost of manufacturing rises as a result, and sales decline as
a result of this. Morrison used a focus-based positioning approach since the company
concentrated its efforts only on the north of England, particularly Yorkshire. Being larger
implies taking advantage of economies of scale; as a consequence, after the merger, it was
forced to modify its putting strategy from one focused on focus to one based on low costs.
Because of the quick shift in size and number of clients, it had difficulty in providing items
that met the demands of the market, particularly in the southern regions of the United States.
A shift in positioning, along with little understanding about other markets (particularly in the
South), resulted in fewer consumers, resulting in lower sales and, ultimately, lower profits.
Safeway underwent a transformation under Morrison, which included changes to its formats
and trademarks. Because of the loyal consumers, the imposition of a new culture on the
recently bought Safeway did not produce positive outcomes (Byer, 2019). It seems to have
been forced on the consumers of the purchased Safeway, regardless of their brand allegiance
to the company. As a consequence, Morrison lost a large number of clients, which resulted in
5|Page
lower sales and, subsequently, lower profits (Jones and Comfort 2019).
Morrison welcomes fierce competition, but it believes that competition should be equitable. It
was confident in what it claimed to have done in terms of planning and advertising, and it did
not make slanderous statements about its rivals. Morrison was very concerned with the
quality and affordability of food, as well as its source, freshness, and valuing. It thought that
it provided the greatest value for money across all food categories and that it provided its
consumers with fantastic rates on all items, not just those on special offers or promotions. It
said that its personnel were providing excellent customer service to its clients (Dawson and
Meehan, 2021). There was a significant contrast between the two companies in that Morrison
forced its ethos on Safeway by updating emblems, relabeling its brands, and altering formats.

Conclusion
In this post, I explained the most important concepts of Morrison's strategic change
management. Next, we described issues related to strategic changes in your organization,
using needs and factors that drive change and impact on resources. Next, by analyzing
stakeholder groups, we discussed key stakeholders in developing strategies for change. He
also declared resistance to Morrison's changes. Dashboards allow Morrison to easily monitor
goals such as work progress and other personnel measures for individual employees. These
reports should be reviewed monthly by senior management. Management information
systems can be integrated with Morrison's management to quickly access business data,
develop business knowledge, and accelerate decision making.

6|Page
References

Brandebo, M.F., 2020. Destructive leadership in crisis management. Leadership &

Organization Development Journal.
Brandebo, M.F., 2021. Sweden’s Covid-19 Strategy from a Leadership Perspective:
Importance of Trust and Role Models. In Globalization, Political Economy, Business and
Society in Pandemic Times. Emerald Publishing Limited.
Byer, T., 2019. Narrative Burial and the Pleasure Principle: A Freudian Reading of Trauma in
Toni Morrison's' Beloved'. In Postgraduate English: A Journal and Forum for Postgraduates
in English (Vol. 39).
Dawson, C. and Meehan, S., 2021. The Customer Copernicus: How to be Customer-Led.
Routledge.
Ford, J.K., Lauricella, T.K., Van Fossen, J.A. and Riley, S.J., 2021. Creating energy for
change: The role of changes in perceived leadership support on commitment to an
organizational change initiative. The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 57(2), pp.153-
173.
Haleem, F. and Jehangir, M., 2017. Strategic management practices by Morrison PLC, UK.
Analysis, lessons and implications. Middle East Journal of Business, 12(3), pp.2-9.
Hanelt, A., Bohnsack, R., Marz, D. and Antunes Marante, C., 2021. A systematic review of
the literature on digital transformation: insights and implications for strategy and
organizational change. Journal of Management Studies, 58(5), pp.1159-1197.
Jones, P. and Comfort, D., 2019. Stories and Retailer Brands: A Study of the UK’s Leading
Retailers. Indonesian Journal of Contemporary Management Research, 1(2), pp.65-77.
Levy, M., 2021. Change management serving knowledge management and organizational
development: Reflections and review. In Research Anthology on Digital Transformation,
Organizational Change, and the Impact of Remote Work (pp. 990-1004). IGI Global.
Macaulay, M., 2021. In search of a golden thread: recent developments in public
management across New Zealand and Australia. Public Management Review, 23(9), pp.1265-
1274.
Strangio, P. and Walter, J., 2020. The Personalisation of the Campaign. In Morrison's
Miracle: The 2019 Australian Federal Election (pp. 107-124). ANU E Press.
You, J., Kim, J. and Lim, D.H., 2021. Organizational learning and change: Strategic
interventions to deal with resistance. In Research Anthology on Digital Transformation,

7|Page
Organizational Change, and the Impact of Remote Work (pp. 723-741). IGI Global.

8|Page